Latitudes of Melt

This was a beautiful book that portrayed a very complex character. Aurora is found as a baby wrapped in a basket covered by a rubber sheet tied to an upturned chair which is floating on an ice slab in the Artic Ocean off the coast of Newfoundland. It is only a few days after the Titanic disaster but nobody is looking for this baby and from the beginning everything about her seems unusual. She has pale skin and almost white hair and she always feels cool. She likes to wander by herself and she has a very unusual connection with animals which leads the locals to think that maybe she was left by faeries. I think I liked this book because although it paints this very ethereal picture of Aurora as a baby and as a child she has a very human marriage and a complex relationship with her children that is portrayed in a believable way. You do not always like Aurora's decisions and the book has its share of heartbreak but I guarantee you will feel you've encountered a genuine and unique story that will stay with you long after you've finished the book.

This is a beautifully-written book, providing a strong setting and feeling of Newfoundland, where it is mainly set. The timeline of the book follows the same as the life of Aurora, an ethereal spirit who was discovered as a baby floating on an ice slab in middle of the Atlantic ocean, her birthplace and story up until that point a mystery to all. From that point on, we come to know her, the members of her complex but very human family, and ultimately, to feel a part of the family and land. Highly recommended.